SWAN QUARTER — Hyde County’s MATTIE (Mattamuskeet Artisans – Teaching, Training, Instructing and Educating) Arts Center is celebrating three years of operation this month since its opening in October 2012.

The nonprofit held its first art class on Oct. 13, 2012 and then had a public opening on Oct. 27, 2012 at the Down East Arts and Crafts Show.

Judy McLawhorn, director at the arts center, said the three-year anniversary is of note because the center operates as a nonprofit run by volunteers, and it can be hard for these types of organizations to stay afloat.

According to a press release, the center has “had more than 500 student enrollments in classes and workshops running the gamut from ornamental concrete design to fine arts, and have augmented incomes for local and area artists and instructors in excess of $22,000.”

The three-year celebration will be held Oct. 31 starting at 10 a.m., the same day of the Down East Arts and Crafts Show, as has become tradition. Participants can expect sidewalk and sand art, corn hole competitions, face painting, free food and exhibiting artists, according to the release. Halloween costumes are encouraged.

McLawhorn said it’s important for Hyde County residents to have access to and support an arts center like MATTIE because, otherwise, they would have to drive many miles to get the same resources, specifically the fine arts instruction.

Another important resource is the Down Draft Studio clean lab, which opened about a year ago and is the only one of its kind in the area, she said. The lab is built to accommodate crafts that create dust particles and includes tools and safety equipment that makes activities, such as glass cutting and engraving, possible.

“We conduct classes year-round, and our sales guy provides the only venue for Hyde County artists to have their art seen and hopefully sold,” McLawhorn said.

According to its website, the MATTIE Arts Center received funding from the North Carolina Arts Council via a grant administered by the formerly named Beaufort County Arts Council, now Arts of the Pamlico. It now features art from more than 30 local artists.

 

The MATTIE Arts Center’s three-year celebration will be Oct. 31 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the center, Historic 1854 Courthouse, 10 Oyster Creek Road, Swan Quarter. The event is free and open to the public.